Prim″er (?), n. [Originally, the book read at prime, the first canonical hour. LL. primae liber. See Prime, n., 4.] 1. Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.
The primer, or office of the Blessed Virgin. Bp. Stillingfleet.
2. A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner.
As he sat in the school at his prymer. Chaucer.
3. (Print.) A kind of type, of which there are two species; one, called long primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica [see Long primer]; the other, called great primer, larger than pica.
Great primer type.